People are dying for lack of knowledge

Tens of thousands of people die every day, often for the simple reason that the parent, carer or health worker lacks the information and knowledge they need to save them…more

The HIFA Vision: A world where every person and every health worker will have access to the healthcare information they need to protect their own health and the health of those for whom they are responsible.

20 July to 24 August 2015: Join the pre-Forum 2015 discussion on HIFA – Meeting the information needs of researchers and users of health research in low- and middle-income countries

This virtual discussion on HIFA will bring together more than 8000 health researchers, publishers, librarians, policymakers, clinicians and information professionals to focus on key questions around access to health research. More information

Latest feedback from members:
“Correspondence on HIFA has helped my thinking to develop a new project – Less is More – to provide a database of evidence-based ‘less is more’ medicine. HIFA members have shared many examples where doing less (for example, not prescribing unnecessary medicines, not ordering unnecessary and expensive investigations, and not doing unnecessary surgery) is in the patient’s interests.” Bill Cayley, family practice doctor, USA, 12 June 2015
“I wanted to say thank you for such amazing updates from the world of public health. I always look forward to your e-mail. Great work!” Nishant Chavan, Institute of Health Management, Pachod, India, 4 June 2015
More feedback: What people say about HIFA

Our thanks to all participants at the HIFA session of the AHILA 14 Congress (Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa) in Dar es Salaam in October 2014.

HIFA Voices

The HIFA Voices database brings together the experiential knowledge of HIFA members: more than 12,000 professionals from over 2500 organisations in 170 countries, ranging from senior executives at the World Health Organization in Geneva to community health workers in rural Gambia. We are delighted to announce three Lead Sponsors for this initiative: 1. The Lancet, 2. Elsevier and 3. mPowering Frontline Health Workers in association with Intel Corporation. more…

“HIFA2015 achieves an extraordinary level of activity on minimal resources from which many people around the world benefit”

Lack of basic healthcare knowledge leads to needless death and suffering in developing countries. Most deaths are due to failure to provide life-saving interventions – interventions that are often locally available, but are simply not provided.

“It is tragic that so many children continue to die unnecessarily for want of simple, low-cost interventions that are often locally available. It is even more tragic that many of these children would have been saved if only their mothers, fathers, family caregivers and, indeed, health workers, had basic healthcare knowledge to recognise serious illness requiring urgent, appropriate, life-saving action.”

Who are we?

HIFA is a campaign and knowledge network with more than 14,000 members interacting on 5 forums in 3 languages, representing more than 2,500 organisations worldwide. Members include health workers, publishers, librarians, information technologists, researchers, social scientists, journalists, policy-makers and others – all working together towards the HIFA Vision: a world where every person and every health worker has access to the healthcare information they need to protect their own health and the health of those for whom they are responsible.

HIFA contributes to the broader goal of the Global Health Workforce Alliance: ‘All people everywhere will have access to a skilled, motivated and supported health worker, within a robust health system’

News

Join the pre-Forum 2015 discussion on HIFA: Meeting the information needs of researchers and users of health research in low- and middle-income countries

17th July 2015

20 July to 24 August 2015: Join the pre-Forum 2015 discussion on HIFA – Meeting the information needs of researchers and users of health research in low- and middle-income countries This virtual discussion on HIFA will bring together more than 8000 health researchers, publishers, librarians, policymakers, clinicians and information professionals to focus on key questions [...]

BMA Representatives vote unanimously for Healthcare Information For All

10th July 2015

BMA Representatives vote unanimously for Healthcare Information For All We are delighted to report that the British Medical Association Annual Representative Meeting has recently debated and voted unanimously in favour of the following motion: “That this meeting applauds efforts to bring essential healthcare information to citizens in low resource settings, welcomes the BMA’s ongoing support [...]